Every year, thousands of students select a college to attend. Decisions hinge on factors including convenience, cost, financial aid or grant availability, location or simply because the college is the same one a parent or sibling went to. Wherever you wind up, the costs of college can quickly add up.

Depending on which side of the country you choose to relocate to and whether the college is a public or a private institution, the expenses can vary. Luckily, there are ways to navigate the costs of going to college by mapping out how you intend to utilize the options available to you. The infographic below is a great resource for students seeking to chart out the average costs of attending college:

What do you think about these figures? Are they more or less than you expected?

Miki Noble is a writer for DormRoomMovers.com. If she doesn’t have her nose in a book or her head behind a camera, she’s usually dreaming about her next big travel extravaganza. Having bounced around the globe in her younger life, she’s now happily settled in Arizona with her tribe of three. Her next adventures encompass potty training her three-year-old son and hiking the entire top 10 trails in the US with her husband.